Armour in 5th Century Britain -- myArmoury.com

Shawn Shaw · Posted: Sat 22 Jul, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject: Armour in 5th Century Britain

I've been doing a bit of research but I'm not having as much luck as I would like. I know that, after the roman pullout of Britain, there was a wide variety of armour on the island ranging from none to lorica segmentata.

Does anyone have any specific armour types (pictures are a plus) that would be appropriate for a Briton in the 5th Century? (Yes, I know most of them would have fought mostly unarmoured...but we'll say it's a wealthy Briton). How appropriate would lamellar be? I know that it was in heavy use in Byzantium in the 5th century but it's hard to say whether it made it up to Britain or not.

I'm also looking for info/images on appropriate period helms.

Any help is most appreciated!

Thanks,

Shawn

Hisham Gaballa · Posted: Sun 23 Jul, 2006 4:20 am Post subject:

I doubt you would have found lorica segmentatas, they seem to have fallen out of use by the middle of the 3rd century AD.

Have you tried the Roman History Forum? They're sure to have a few threads on this, here's a link:
http://www.romanarmy.nl/rat/viewforum.php?f=1...ad1ede5d8c

Chuck Russell · Posted: Sun 23 Jul, 2006 4:40 am Post subject:

i would say at the most you would see mail here and there. lammalar never hit england big even in the full swing of the middle ages so i do not ahve any references for it in teh 5thc

as for helmets, do a search on late roman infantry helmets. you also may see some early spangen styles. but thats my only 2 suggestions.

Felix Wang · Posted: Sun 23 Jul, 2006 12:14 pm Post subject:

Chuck has pretty much covered it. There would be an outside possibility of scale armour, which was known and used by the Romans and some of their enemies, but mail and late Roman/Spangen helms would be the most common forms of armour.